Sunday, January 20, 2013

The Great (film) Debates vol. 68

From banana peels to falling anvils to pies in the face, nothing satisfies our need for seeing others in pain like a great physical gag.

What is the funniest physical gag on film?

Panelist: ScottDS

This might be the toughest question I've had to answer (which is saying a lot). It would be too easy to mention the Marx Brothers or the Three Stooges (or Laurel & Hardy, Chaplin, Keaton, Lloyd, Peter Sellers, Leslie Nielsen, etc.). This scene from The Patsy featuring Jerry Lewis is a work of genius. It's easy to break everything in a room but I swear I've never seen someone almost break everything in a room. As an aside, the actress in the scene is the lovely Ina Balin who passed away at the young age of 53. Man, she was a looker!

Panelist: T-Rav

I think it’s pretty hard to argue with the scene in Dr. Strangelove where Slim Pickens is straddling the nuclear bomb. “Ride ‘em, cowboy!”

Panelist: BevfromNYC

Okay, don’t hate me for this, but watching Jim Carrey in Fun With Dick and Jane when he hears that he is going to be indicted just sends me into hysterics! He’s running around yelling “INDICTED?? INDICTED??”
Sorry, it’s a scream.

Panelist: AndrewPrice

I actually don't like physical gags. But one film stands out to me: Scary Movie 3 and the abuse Cody takes in the basement when George tries to save him with the baseball bat.

Panelist: Tennessee Jed

Hard to choose just one, but you know what popped into my head first? The scene from Men At Work where the dork bicycle cops are handcuffed to a teeter totter in a rather compromising position while clad only in their tidy whiteys and knee socks. Of course the entire Peter Sellers film The Party is basically one of the greatest feature length sight gags ever.

As I mentioned in my comment Jackie Chan was a Keaton fan and in Project A Pt 2 he did his own version of the house stunt. As it was the sequel he must have wanted to go all out, you can see it at the end of this short scene.

I missed your mention of the clock tower stunt the first time I read your comment. Because as you might have guessed, Jackie also does a homage to it in Project A. While he does copy a lot of scenes he also adds his own spin of putting these scenes into a fight scene.

There's an even funnier Jerry Lewis clip but I couldn't find it. In The Ladies Man, he accidentally sits on another guy's hat, then tries to put it back on the man's head, destroying it in the process. You can even hear Jerry laughing during the scene (his back is to the camera).

-the bridge game between Harpo, Chico, and Margaret Dumont in Animal Crackers-the "Maurice Chevalier" scene in Monkey Business-the mirror scene in Duck Soup-the stateroom scene AND the scene in which they fool the police inspector by making their hotel room appear to be another room in A Night at the Opera-the sanitarium scene with Margaret Dumont in A Day at the Races-Harpo and Chico playing a piano together in The Big Store-the rooftop chase in Times Square in Love Happy

When I was younger, I loved the Marx Brothers' physical comedy but I finally got much of the wordplay and references as I got older. But the physical gags were enough to capture my interest as a 9-year old.

Oddly enough, there's even a degree of clever wordplay in many Three Stooges shorts for which they don't get enough credit.

Scott, When I was young, I liked their physical comedy as well -- I liked the Stooges too. But over time, I've really lost my interest in physical comedy. It just doesn't strike me as funny anymore except in really rare instances.

just got back home after a weekend road trip to Huntsville, Alabama. Always enjoy the drive and scenery around Chattanooga, but this was one tough category. Lucille Ball was the master, but I think of her more from the I Love Lucy t.v. show rather than film.

Well, Kenn beat me to what first came to my mind, so to bring something else to the table, I will go with when Han Solo kicks Chewie in the backside and screams "Get in there you big furry oaf!" during the detention block shoot-out escape in Star Wars.

I am watching "Me and The Colonel". Kaye plays a Polish Jew trying to escape the Germany army in France with a Polish Colonel in WWII. Great line - "Colonel, you one of the great minds of the 12th Century. Unfortunately, I live in the 20th Century."

Well it's hard to go with anything, because going with the early physical comics just seems cliche, but all the later ones are just paying homage to the earlier ones. Now, my favorite sight gag, which isn't exactly physical comedy, is the long run of well-placed objects during the Austin Powers nude scenes.

There's one great sequence in TOP SECRET! which takes place in a Swedish bookshop, that nearly takes the winner's cake for me.

But for me, the best full-length feature of non-stop pratfalls, is the R-rated "IL MOSTRO" (The Monster) starring Roberto Benigni, a year or two before he did "LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL." That film is a work of genius, and was wise enough to homage the great mirror sequence done in Duck Soup and the first Pink Panther movie.